Chemicals Coffee Time Newsflash 23-11-2022 – EU Titanium Dioxide Carcinogenicity Classification Annulled

Dear Friend,

Very exciting news on Titanium Dioxide, which regular readers will be aware has been a situation where the science does not back up the carcinogenicity classification for powder forms, brought into law as part of the 14th ATP to CLP, EC 2020/217.

This specific classification has now been overturned by the General Court of the European Court of Justice, see https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/applicati….

Congratulations to Darren Abrahams and the team at Steptoe for their hard work on this, see https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7001149496….

I’m not sure whether this means that the classification is immediately not legal, or whether there will have to be an alteration to the 14th ATP or another ATP to remove it from Annex VI of EU-CLP.

But it feels like today, science has won.

Before we get too excited, there are a couple of problems we can foresee.

• Unfortunately for the UK, we have adopted the 14th ATP to CLP in full on Exit Day, and this EU ruling does not affect the Mandatory Classification of Titanium Dioxide, unless DEFRA or the HSE move quickly to adopt it. (Currently, there have been no alterations to the Mandatory Classification List since Exit Day).
• The other problem is what will happen with the downstream regulations which have accepted that Titanium Dioxide powders are carcinogenic, such as cosmetics and food and feedingstuff regulations, and potentially even pharmaceuticals, as TiO2 is used in many pills. If these regulations have specifically named TiO2 in their Annexes as being prohibited, will there need to be further legislation to remove it? How long will this take? And does this also affect UK/ GB law as well as EU law?
• There may also be an appeal, as the European Commission fought tooth and nail to push through this classification in the RAC stages, and I suspect they may not want to lose at this level either

So a good day, but not the end of this issue, by any means.

Kind regards,

Janet

Janet Greenwood

TT Environmental Ltd

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